Sleeping Beauty (1959)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Clyde Geronimi

Writers:

Erdman Penner (story)
Charles Perrault (story)
(more)

Release Date:

6 February 1959 (Brazil)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

Now the magic moment! Full-length feature fantasy - Beautiful beyond belief

Plot:

A snubbed malevolent fairy casts a curse on a princess that only a prince can break, with the help of three good fairies.

Plot Keywords:

Prince | Fairy | Princess | King | Birthday

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Mary Costa	...	Princess Aurora (voice)
Bill Shirley	...	Prince Phillip (voice)
Eleanor Audley	...	Maleficent (voice)
Verna Felton	...	Flora (voice)
Barbara Luddy	...	Merryweather (voice)
Barbara Jo Allen	...	Fauna (voice)
Taylor Holmes	...	Stefan (voice)
Bill Thompson	...	Hubert (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bill Amsbery	...	Maleficent's Goon (voice) (uncredited)
Candy Candido	...	Maleficent's Goon (voice) (uncredited)
Pinto Colvig	...	Maleficent's Goon (voice) (uncredited)
Dal McKennon	...	Owl (voice) (uncredited)
Marvin Miller	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Thurl Ravenscroft	...	Singer (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Clyde Geronimi		(supervising)

Writing credits
Erdman Penner		(story adaptation)
Charles Perrault		(story "Sleeping Beauty")
Joe Rinaldi		(additional story) &
Winston Hibler		(additional story) &
Bill Peet		(additional story) &
Ted Sears		(additional story) &
Ralph Wright		(additional story) &
Milt Banta		(additional story)

Original Music by
Jack Lawrence		(musical score) (uncredited)

Film Editing by
Roy M. Brewer Jr.
Donald Halliday

Production Design by
Ken Anderson
Don DaGradi

Production Management
Ken Peterson	....	production supervisor

Sound Department
Robert O. Cook	....	sound supervisor

Visual Effects by
Jack Boyd	....	effects animator
Jack Buckley	....	effects animator
Ub Iwerks	....	special processes
Eustace Lycett	....	special processes
Dan MacManus	....	effects animator
Joshua Meador	....	effects animator
Bob Abrams	....	effects animator (uncredited)
Abra Grupp	....	digital paint artist (restored version) (uncredited)
Dorse A. Lanpher	....	assistant effects animator (uncredited)

Animation Department
Hal Ambro	....	character animator
Dick Anthony	....	background artist
Ray Aragon	....	layout artist
Frank Armitage	....	background artist
Bob Carlson	....	character animator
Eric Cleworth	....	character animator
Tom Codrick	....	layout artist
Basil Davidovich	....	layout artist
Marc Davis	....	directing animator
Al Dempster	....	background artist
Eyvind Earle	....	color stylist
Blaine Gibson	....	character animator
Don Griffith	....	layout artist
Victor Haboush	....	layout artist
Joe Hale	....	layout artist
Jack Huber	....	layout artist
Ralph Hulett	....	background artist
Ken Hultgren	....	character animator
Ollie Johnston	....	directing animator
Homer Jonas	....	layout artist
Milt Kahl	....	directing animator
John Kennedy	....	character animator
Hal King	....	character animator
Fred Kopietz	....	character animator
Bill Layne	....	background artist
John Lounsbery	....	directing animator
Don Lusk	....	character animator
Fil Mottola	....	background artist
George Nicholas	....	character animator
Ernie Nordli	....	layout artist (as Erni Nordli)
Ken O'Brien	....	character animator
Tom Oreb	....	character stylist
Walt Peregoy	....	background artist
Anthony Rizzo	....	background artist
John Sibley	....	character animator
McLaren Stewart	....	layout artist
Henry Tanous	....	character animator
Frank Thomas	....	directing animator
Richard H. Thomas	....	background artist
Harvey Toombs	....	character animator
Thelma Witmer	....	background artist
Robert W. Youngquist	....	character animator (as Bob Youngquist)
Don Bluth	....	assistant animator (uncredited)
Chuck Jones	....	layout artist (uncredited)
Gary Mooney	....	assistant animator (uncredited)
Floyd Norman	....	clean-up artist (uncredited)
Floyd Norman	....	inbetween artist (uncredited)
Phil Roman	....	assistant animator (uncredited)

Casting Department
Ken Peterson	....	casting: animation artists (uncredited)

Music Department
Tom Adair	....	songs
George Bruns	....	songs
Sammy Fain	....	songs
Winston Hibler	....	songs
Evelyn Kennedy	....	music editor
Jack Lawrence	....	songs
Erdman Penner	....	songs
John Rarig	....	choral arrangement
Ted Sears	....	songs
Frederick Stark	....	conductor (uncredited)

Other crew
Les Clark	....	sequence director
Walt Disney	....	presenter
Eric Larson	....	sequence director
Wolfgang Reitherman	....	sequence director
Eleanor Audley	....	live action model: Maleficent (uncredited)
Frances Bavier	....	live action model: Fairy (uncredited)
Madge Blake	....	live action model: Fairy (uncredited)
Spring Byington	....	live action model: Fairy (uncredited)
Jane Fowler	....	live action model: Maleficent (uncredited)
Ed Kemmer	....	live action model: Prince Phillip (uncredited)
Helene Stanley	....	live action model: Princess Aurora (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Walt Disney Productions

Distributors

• Buena Vista Film Distribution Company (1959) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista Film Distribution Company (1979) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Buena Vista International (1995) (Austria) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Finnkino (1995) (Finland) (theatrical)
• RKO (1960) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Suomi-Filmi (1959) (Finland) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1998) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2002) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (????) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Gativideo (19??) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Gativideo (2008) (Argentina) (DVD) (platinum edition)
• Walt Disney Home Video (????) (worldwide) (VHS)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (UK) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD) (Blu-Ray Disc)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-Ray Disc)

Other Companies

• Berlin Symphony Orchestra  score recorded by (uncredited)
• Cinesite  restoration work
• Panavision  process lenses

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (original release) | 70 mm 6-Track (RCA Sound Recording) (70 mm prints) | Dolby Digital (DVD version) | Mono (35 mm prints) (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:o.Al. | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Canada:G (video rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | USA:Approved (certificate #19062) (original rating) | Finland:K-3 (2008) (DVD release) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Chile:TE | Finland:K-8 (1959) | Peru:PT | Spain:T | Sweden:7 (re-release) | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

In the original fable, the princess sleeps for 100 years, and the Prince finds her and wakes her up after the aforementioned century has passed. This idea was dropped for the Disney film so that the Prince could be introduced much earlier in the story.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the fairies change into peasant clothes, Merryweather does not speak the first half of her line, "And we can use our magic to help us."

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: In a faraway land, long ago, there lived a King and his fair Queen. Many years they had longed for a child, and finally their wish was granted. A daughter was born, and they called her Aurora. Yes, they named her after the dawn, for she filled their lives with sunshine. Then a great holiday was proclaimed throughout the land, so that all of high or low estate could pay homage to the infant Princess. And our story begins on that most joyful day...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty (2008) (V)

Soundtrack:

Sleeping Beauty Ballet

I have a theory about this movie...

...which is that it may have been designed more for an adult audience than a children's. At any rate it was way ahead of its time in 1959. "Sleeping Beauty" was one of the movies I watched as a child, and its grandness overwhelmed me even at the age of ten. I couldn't be happier to see it finally in the DVD format. But watch closely; you'll notice many subtle, sophisticated things which other viewers have touched on in earlier reviews. The animation is almost surreal-- so incredibly lifelike that it abandons its cute, 'Disneyesque' pretensions from previous fairy tales. There are no talking mice, dogs or cats anywhere to be seen. Here the animals are silent, as animals are supposed to be. (I love the sequence with the forest animals as they are awakened by the singing of the barefoot princess and join up with her, like multiple chaperons, in harmonious whistles.) Even the fairy godmothers- who may initially appear as sugary stereotypes- spend so much time bickering (well, two of them do anyway) that you get to identify them as thoroughly fleshed out personalities. The adaptation of the original Perrault fairy tale is also impressive. An ingenious move was to have the prince and princess meet in the forest *first* and fall in love- unaware that they are already engaged to be married. Someone mentioned the chilling sequence which shows the princess, cloaked in an eerie green pallor, actually being lured to the fateful spinning wheel. So dark, so frightening- when was the last time you saw something like this in a Disney fairy tale? And then immediately afterwords is a cleansing sequence of unmatched beauty showing the fairies sailing through the sky like fireflies, magically dusting the rest of the castle to sleep. It is, of course, only matched by the film's finale which shows storm clouds, lightning, a forest of thorns, and a flame-spewing dragon-- all seamlessly bringing the story to a 75-minute conclusion. It stands, in my opinion, as Disney's masterpiece.